Beginning with an impressive foreword by labor and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, Somos Latinas: Voices of Wisconsin Latina Activists parallels a groundbreaking oral history project. The book serves as a who’s who of change-makers, providing inspiration and context for modern and budding activists.

Authors Andrea-Teresa Arenas and Eloisa Gómez — activists who met in Milwaukee during the 1980s — know the territory well.

Gómez says community activism is not about being the “Lone Ranger,” but rather the long, hard work of finding common ground: “It’s the engagement of others with a common agenda working together to create a change. It’s the mundane things and the tiring things and late-night board meetings.”

Several of the activists profiled in the book made major marks on Madison when the city’s Latino population was relatively small.

Debora Gil Casado, who started teaching at Madison high schools in 1984, formed a Latino teachers group and later, against considerable resistance, co-founded Nuestro Mundo, the city’s first Spanish-immersion charter school. Casado also helped settle immigrant students and families. Her community organizing pressured the school district to hire a bilingual social worker and to translate notes sent home to parents.

After Ramona Villareal, an experienced teacher, couldn’t get hired in the Madison schools, she taught in Spring Green for 23 years. Villareal later won an eight-year legal battle that forced the city to implement affirmative action hiring targets for Latinos.

Somos Latinas, which the authors translate as “We Latinas,” recounts multiple tactics women have used to create change. One activist serenaded Milwaukee labor protesters and United Farm Workers with her voice and guitar. Another represented Latinx (a gender-neutral term for Latinos and Latinas) on a business board in Racine before co-founding a Latinx business association there. Others worked in social services, agitated for immigrant rights and served on city boards. One woman organized the delivery of health supplies to the Sandinistas as they battled the Contras in Nicaragua. Another worked at Planned Parenthood, despite conflicting religious beliefs. Many of the activists faced racism, political resistance and lack of support from men in their communities.

The book is the second phase of an oral history project initiated in 2012 for a class Arenas taught in UW-Madison Department of Chican@ and Latin@ Studies. For four years, students recorded nearly 50 interviews as part of a larger national effort. The authors hope the tales of finding strength in and supporting community will help younger Latinx.

“It’s about our women’s lives being known and honored,” says Arenas. “As a kid, all I could do was read the news and what was getting covered was a smattering of black politicians. Latino activists didn’t get in the paper.”

Proceeds from the book will fund scholarships for Latinx students. The broader Somos Latinas Digital History Project, which includes the class’s video footage, will be housed online at the Wisconsin Historical Society.

A book launch event for Somos Latinas is scheduled for May 19, at the Wisconsin Historical Society, 1-3 p.m.